PREFERENCE REASONING IN COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL CHOICE

Corso di Dottorato in Informatica – Università di Padova – Giugno 2013

Maria Silvia Pini

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Preference Reasoning in Computational Social Choice

I want to show the crucial role of preference reasoning in a new field of research called Computational Social Choice, which is is an interdisciplinary field of study at the interface of social choice theory and computer science, promoting an exchange of ideas in both directions. On the one hand, it is concerned with the application of techniques developed in computer science, such as complexity analysis or algorithm design, to the study of social choice mechanisms, such as voting procedures. On the other hand, computational social choice is concerned with importing concepts from social choice theory into computing. For instance, social welfare orderings originally developed to analyse the quality of resource allocations in human society are equally well applicable to problems in multiagent systems or network design.

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Program

1. Introduction

2. Voting procedures

3. Impossibility theorems

4. Strategic manipulation

5. Circumventing manipulation

6. Uncertainty in preference aggregation

7. Compact preference representation

8. Stable matching problems

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Timetable (Dipartimento di Matematica, Via Trieste 63, 35121 Padova) – 12 hours

· Lunedì 17 Giugno 2013: 14:00 -17:00, aula 2BC30 (3h)

· Martedì 18 Giugno 2013: 11:00 - 13:00, aula 2BC30 (2h)

· Mercoledì 19 Giugno 2013: 14:00 - 17:00 aula 2BC30 (3h)

· Venerdì 21 Giugno 2013: 15:00 – 17:00, aula 2BC30 (2h)

· Venerdì 5 Luglio 2013: 15:00-17:00, aula 2BC30 (2h)

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Lessons

I parte: Voting procedures and results

II parte: Circumventing manipulation and uncertainty in preference aggregation

III parte: Compact preference representations and stable matching probems

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Examination and grading

The students’ performance will be assessed for each course via an academic paper where the student will relate his research area with some of the topics presented in the course. This paper will be presented by the student during the last lesson.